LAHORE: Winter vacation in all public and private educational institutions will begin from Dec 19 while all ongoing examinations have been postponed in the wake of a terrorist attack on a Peshawar school.

A notification issued by the Punjab School Education Department on Thursday said: “Winter vacation will be observed from Dec 19, 2014, to Jan 2, 2015, in all government and private schools in the province.”

Earlier, the Punjab School Education Department had notified on Jan 3 this year that winter holidays would be from Dec 24 to 31.

Punjab government spokesperson Zaeem Husain Qadri said, in a statement, the schools would remain closed up to Jan 3 while the colleges and universities up to Jan 9.

“The ongoing examinations will be rescheduled after conclusion of the winter vacation,” he said in the statement.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government constituted committees at the district level to conduct a survey of all public sector schools.

Headed by the district coordination officer concerned, the committees will submit within a week survey reports to the provincial high-ups. Encroachments around public sector schools would also be removed on a priority basis while trained guards equipped with arms would be deployed there.

A number of owners of private tuition centres and academies told Dawn they had been contacted by education department authorities and directed to close down their campuses till Jan 9.

“We have been asked to make security arrangements for our campuses, otherwise the campuses will not be allowed to open,” said an owner.

Spokespersons for the University of Education, Government College University and Lahore College for Women University announced that the campuses would re-open on Jan 10.

All Pakistan Private Schools Federation President Kashif Mirza said the member institutions would re-open on Jan 5.

All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association president Adeeb Javedani said, in a statement, the affiliated institutions would observe winter vacation from Dec 25, 2014, to Jan 3, 2015.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014